Developers share site’s archaeological heritage with students

ARTEFACTS dating back around 6,000 years have been presented to students at Lord Williams’s School in Thame.

Senior Project Officer at Cotswold Archaeology Chris Ellis, Bloor Homes Sales Manager Gemma Deacon, Lord Williams’s School teacher Carly Harris and headteacher David Wybron with some of the artefacts found onsite

The remains of prehistoric monuments and settlements going back to the Neolithic period were among the exciting discoveries made during a seven-month excavation of Bloor Homes’ Thame Meadows site, in Oxford Road, right opposite the school.

Archaeologists have described the dig, which was carried out by experts from Oxford Cotswold Archaeology, as one of the most significant undertaken in Britain last year.

Chris Ellis, Senior Project Officer at Cotswold Archaeology, part of a joint venture with Oxford Archaeology, presented the findings to the students at a special assembly on Wednesday, April 20.

Chris said: “It was such a fantastic experience to show prehistoric remains and artefacts to that many students in one go. They were very enthusiastic and interested in all the items we have discovered just over the road.

“For the sheer density and range of archaeological features and the long period which they span, this has been the most fascinating and exhilarating excavation I have been involved with in my 25-year career.”

One of the most important finds was the discovery of a rare causewayed enclosure dating back to around 3,700BC, one of only 80 such monuments known to exist in Britain.

Consisting of one or more circuits of bank and ditch, they are the earliest known monuments made by some of the farming communities and were constructed to enclose areas of open space where communal gatherings would take place.

Archaeologists also uncovered the remains of at least three roundhouses from the early Iron Age period (700-400BC), and more than 150 pits, used for storing grain and later disposing of rubbish, some containing human remains where settlers had buried the dead.

Discoveries from the Roman period (AD43-410) include a number of enclosures which housed corn drying ovens, while around 14 small Saxon buildings, dating from the 6th to 7th Century AD and believed to have been textile workshops, were also uncovered.

Flint tools, pottery and combs made from animal bone were just some of the thousands of artefacts discovered.

The finds from the excavation will be housed with the Oxfordshire County Museum Service, and it is likely some of the objects will be displayed in Thame Museum.

Gemma Deacon, Sales Manager for Bloor Homes South Midlands, said: “It was fascinating to see Chris present the archaeological findings to the students and to observe how interested they were in the items that were found just opposite their school.

“The site has clearly been a popular location for human settlers throughout the ages and we believe our Thame Meadows development is already proving just as attractive to house hunters looking for their perfect home in the Oxfordshire countryside.”

SOURCE: Contributed